The Department of Energy was scheduled to brief a local agency-chartered advisory group on Wednesday about plans for a new landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
A DOE draft record of decision is expected in July on the proposed Environmental Management Disposal Facility, designed to handle low-risk construction material from building demolition at the Y-12 National Security Complex as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to a presentation posted on the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board’s webpage.
The current 28-acre landfill that opened in 2002 is 80% full and will reach its capacity around 2027, according to DOE. Both the existing and planned landfills are regulated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). There remain more than 300 buildings to be torn down at Y-12 and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, DOE said.
The agency said the new facility would be in keeping with DOE policy to dispose of most high-volume, low-radionuclide debris inside DOE complexes, while providing off-site disposal for low-volume, higher-radionuclide waste.
During a hearing last week in the U.S. House of Representatives, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) DOE still supports the new on-site landfill, which has been delayed amid concerns about effluent run-off concerns by the state of Tennessee and the Environmental Protection Agency.
While registration for the Wednesday meeting at 6 p.m. Eastern Time has closed, various materials are available on the advisory board’s website and the meeting itself will be re-broadcast on the panel’s youtube channel.
